Milan’s Heated Gelato Debate

Ban as council juggles fun-seeking and public order

Milan’s Heated Gelato Debate

Ban as council juggles fun-seeking and public order

MILAN – A hypothetical conversation in Milan between an ice cream-eating citizen and a public official might go like this. “Is it OK to slurp?” “You can slurp provided you do so inside the ice cream shop”. The astounded gelato fan protests: “But I like an ice cream while I’m out in the street in the evening”. The stern public official replies: “Sorry. If you’re in a nightlife zone after midnight, it’s against the law”.

The exchange may be surreal but the underlying situation is all too real. A by-law issued by the city council bans “the sale of take-away food and drinks” in the Navigli, Ticinese, Arco dell Pace and Corso Como districts after midnight for “bars, restaurants and vendors” including “craft ice cream vendors”. The details were set out in a council communiqué issued at 7.51 pm on 7 June, sparking a “battle of the cones” as protests, accusations and bitter argument ensued. Opponents organised a protest outside one ice cream parlour, chanting, somewhat inelegantly, “More Grom [a popular brand of ice cream], less Rom [Romani]”. These grotesque events derive from a problem that has plagued administrations of all political hues. How do you juggle the demand for peace and quiet against the needs of fun-seekers? How do you rein in the worst excesses of the city’s movida?

But before we go on, we need to know what the point is of banning take-away ice cream after midnight. The answer, in another council communiqué dated 8 June, is this: the by-law “has the sole purpose of discouraging the formation of nocturnal assemblies on pavements outside these businesses”. Apart from the archaic language – “nocturnal assemblies”? – there is also the legal question of making the by-laws waterproof in court. You can’t have one law for a kebab shop and another for the ice cream parlour next door. There is also a wider issue that forces Milan to take a good look at itself. Is the capital of northern Italy becoming intractably intolerant? Is the city losing its European openness if every time Bruce Springsteen plays San Siro, opponents of the Boss’s decibel factor unleash their full fury? Meanwhile, the council has been bombarded with tweets. Luca Bizzarri, half of the Luca e Paolo comic duo, opined: “I thought pedestrian Sundays were effing rubbish but only because I hadn’t heard about the midnight ice cream ban”. There was a twitterstorm of quips from ordinary Milanese: “The guy with the cone is a mugger”; “That’ll stop those Magnum-wielding thugs on the Navigli”; “You don’t understand. Mayor Pisapia has banned ice cream because it goes straight onto your thighs. Bikini test, anyone?”; “Chocolate ice cream is against the law. Pupo [a popular singer who released an album called Gelato al cioccolato – Trans.] behind bars!”. This offers a glimpse of a minor political drama. In 2011, Mr Pisapia’s victory over Letizia Moratti was aided by web-borne jibes against the former People of Freedom (PDL) first citizen. Now, at least some of Mr Pisapia’s “orange” supporters are increasingly intolerant of the council’s gaffes, outlefting their leftwing mayor.

Asked about contemporary Milan, sociologist of consumption Enrico Finzi replies: “This is the idiocy of irrelevance”, which he explains as “a tendency on the part of municipal authorities to regulate everything, down to the tiniest details of everyday life. Sadly, this is a delusion of omnipotence on the part of the impotent. They are well aware they can’t influence real processes so they regulate silly things”. Often, common sense is lacking. “Springsteen plays once a year. Residents who feel inconvenienced ought to buy earplugs”. Mr Finzi explains that rowdy groups gathering in certain districts is another issue: “There it’s a mixture of the powerlessness of residents who don’t know who to turn to and the impotence of administrators who haven’t managed to do the important things and worry about irrelevancies. On the right, this has racist overtones while on the left it shades into hyper-interventionism. Given the general cultural deficit, we have institutions that lack authority and are incapable of saying a clear yes or no. But with a serious, credible ‘threat’ and well-organised consensus, it is possible to achieve a point of equilibrium on these issues”.

For the time being, it looks as if gelato will have to be legalised again in Milan to find that equilibrium. The by-law needs to be repealed, tweaked, amended and reinterpreted, something the council will be working on today. Yesterday evening, Mayor Pisapia was in soothing mode: “The Milanese can continue to enjoy their gelato without restrictions before or after midnight. There is no curfew and none was ever going to be put in place. All the misunderstandings will be cleared up”.